Beyond

Embers

Lance glanced up from his book when he glimpsed Thor arriving on the landing pad for the Avenge-jet.

The Avengers and Lance had decided that maybe he should take a step back. Try to get his head sorted out a bit.

The problem was that something felt off.

Lance couldn't dislodge the feeling that something wasn't as it should be.

Maybe he was just paranoid. Or guilty about not telling Gwen and Miles about his weird past and even stranger present.

Or maybe it was because he thought he saw someone who was dead. Hunk was dead he had to accept it.

They say there's 5 parts to grieving and Lance knew he was bargaining, he was trying to find a loophole.

But it wasn't possible.

Hunk would have found him by now. Surely.

Or the lions would have reached out to them, Lance would have felt it.

He was getting distracted again.

He was about to offer a wave to Thor when he realised things weren't as they should be. He tossed his book onto the side and rushed towards where Thor was kneeling next to Steve with an anxious pinch in his brow.

Steve had several rips in his suit and a large red stain on his side. Too big to be a minor injury.

"What happened?!" Lance asked automatically pressing his hand to Steve's side.

"The Captain was too close to an explosion." Thor explained meeting Lance's gaze, he looked terrified. "He needs medical help."

Lance nodded and helped Thor get Steve to his feet. They got a groan for their efforts and Lance frowned deeply.

"Jarvis, prep the med-bay." Lance ordered as they moved him inside.

"Already on it, the other Avengers are on their way back now as well."

Lance nodded and tried to help the A.I as he moved medical equipment to scan Steve to be sure he was alright.

Thor hovered anxiously until Tony and Bruce arrived and some of the tension in his shoulders melted.

While Tony and Bruce worked, Lance placed his hand on Steve's shoulder offering a squeeze, even though the super soldier probably couldn't feel it.

"This isn't good." Bruce admitted glancing to Tony. "His injuries are severe."

"Would a healing pod help?" Lance asked eyes locked onto Steve.

Tony and Bruce shared a look for a moment. "We don't know, we've never seen one in action."

Lance frowned tapping his fingers against his thigh. "I can get one up and running, but it'll need a big power source."

"I can manage that." Tony nodded.

Once Thor had helped Lance move a healing pod into the lab, Bruce and Tony had connected it up to the arc reactor in the basement which pumped out enough energy to power most of New York, Lance activated it watching the screen glow a gentle blue.

Green jumped onto his shoulder perching there as he tapped his way through the Altean commands.

"You can read that?" Clint asked, hovering next to him.

"Yeah." Lance nodded, he glanced towards where Natasha and Thor were standing with Steve. "It's ready."

Getting Steve inside wasn't as easy as Lance envisioned but he had rarely seen anyone else be put into a pod.

Coran always did it.

The blue glass closed and a gentle mist filled the pod, but the screen stayed dead.

"So what happens now?" Natasha asked as Lance poked at the screen. "Lance?"

With a frown Lance smacked the side of it and to his relief Steve's vitals popped up on the screen.

"Four Vargas." Lance said crossing his arms.

"What?"

"Oh, four hours." Lance corrected. "Or there about."

"Four hours to fix all those injuries?" Tony almost stuttered. "Lance please let me take it apart and put it back together."

"Nope." Lance said shaking his head. "Last time I fiddled with one it tried to kill me."

"What?"

"It froze me inside, if Coran hadn't of found me I would have been there forever." Lance shrugged. "Kinda like Steve when he was in the ice."

"How's he going to be when he comes out?" Bruce asked taking his glasses off.

"A bit disorientated." Lance admitted. "Hungry too."

The room was quiet for a moment and Lance knew he had eyes on him.

"How often were you in a pod?" Natasha asked.

Lance eyed the pod for a few more seconds watching Steve's stable heartbeat. "Too many times." He whispered.

The lab was quiet, Natasha and Clint stayed with the pod refusing to go too far.

Tony was pottering around fixing things and working on his armour, sometimes mumbling about something that didn't work.

Bruce was occasionally examining the pod and then he went back to his workbench.

Thor was pacing almost non-stop, running his hands through his hair.

Lance watched them all knowing the feeling they no doubt harboured.

"What happened exactly?" Lance asked breaking the long winded silence.

"The HYDRA base we were at exploded, Steve was still in the building." Clint explained quietly.

Lance frowned.

"I told him not to go in there." Tony grumed from the other side of the room. "But he wouldn't listen."

"We were tricked into thinking they had hostages." Natasha snapped back. "We save people Stark."

"But at what cost." Thor frowned. "We can't always save everyone."

And Lance had to wince as an argument kicked off. He didn't want them to fight.

"You're all scared aren't you?" He asked eyes flickering around them.

The room fell instantly silent and no one would meet his gaze.

He smiled to himself as he glanced back at the pod, he had hit the nail on the head. "Being scared isn't a bad thing you know. I spent my whole time as a paladin absolutely terrified I wasn't good enough to save others."

"Lance-"

"But I focused on the good." Lance tilted his head to meet their gazes with a smile. "I had a team that worked amazingly, I had Blue, I had people who had my back and that took the pressure off. You guys aren't the only heroes out there, Steve trusted you guys to get him home safely."

"Did you ever have a close call?" Clint whispered with a heavy frown.

Lance looked down biting his tongue for a moment. "Yeah, Hunk almost got crushed, Pidge nearly got eaten by a bear, Shiro got attacked by an alien creature, Keith was attacked by the castle's gladiator and I nearly got sucked out into space."

"And you can still smile." Thor said quietly. "You are most valiantly the bravest young one I know."

Lance gave a soft chuckle. "Thor I'm the only teenager you know."

"Still."

"You're right kid." Tony sighed. "We've got each other. And you've got us too."

Lance smiled. "Yeah and you're one of the best teams I've ever seen. Please don't forget that."